Perspicacity
by Mariel Nightstalker
Summary: Draco has an epiphany and tells Harry about it. SLASH Draco/Harry


**Perspicacity**

Some people are better than others.

Draco Malfoy was raised to believe in this perception, but found cause to question it as soon as he began attendance at Hogwarts and was exposed to a wider variety of life than house elves and his parents. Some people were smarter, stronger, or better looking, yes. But the more people he watched, the more he began to see that while some people were just duller than others, they served a purpose. If everybody was interesting, nobody would be interesting. The variety of types fit together almost perfectly, creating a tapestry of human pageantry that inspired him to work in Human Relations as an adult.

Despite his realizations regarding the ultimate equality of all things, he couldn't help but attach more importance to some people over others. Those people usually reciprocated his feelings and formed his social circle. There was an exception to this.

Harry Potter was a celebrity from infancy, and a mysterious one at that. Unlike Lockhart, very little was known about him for 11 years. No one knew what his favorite color was or even what he looked like, apart from an allegedly lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

When he met Potter, he was unimpressed and decided that he must be one of those people that were 'beneath him'. This thought comforted him after his offer of an alliance was rejected; it made sense that someone beneath him would be too stupid to know what he was being offered.

As time went by, his perceptions changed. He gave no outward inclination of his shifting philosophy, preferring to keep his treatment of Potter consistent so that no questions would be asked, but his heart was no longer in the petty schoolboy bullying. If people were equal, then Harry had to be more equal than others. He was important in ways that went beyond his fame and eventual political and wartime power.

It took Draco until the age of twenty-eight to realize why he somehow meant more to him than even his closest friends and in spite of their lack of contact.

Draco loved him.

The solution was so simple he could have laughed or cried. He chose to do neither and merely continued on with his work, even though the human parade that normally fascinated him had lost its pull. His mind swirled gleefully around his new epiphany, adding new details and piecing together thoughts and feelings that had baffled him before. He was in love with Harry Potter.

Of course, something had to be done about this. He hadn't been revealed that epiphany for nothing, he was sure. Some higher power wanted him to act on his repressed feelings. Who was he to disobey?

When the clock hands on his watch pointed to 'Stop Working You Stupid Prick' punctually at 9 in the evening, long after his co-workers had departed for the night, he put his desk into order, packed away some work to look over later into his briefcase, and headed for the bank of elevators. Normally he would push the button for the Main Lobby, but tonight he pressed the button for the Auror Department. It required the use of a password to enter like this, but that was easily done away with. The birth date of the Minister was hardly a secret.

As he had predicted, there was one grumpy old Auror snoring at the front desk that should have been retired decades ago. He slipped quietly past and into the boring bulky part of the Auror Department: the forest of desks and file cabinets that made their reports organized. There was one light on in the distance, coming from an office tucked into the side wall, one of the nice ones with a door and everything.

He strode silently down the carpeted hall to the door and paused just outside. Through the opaque glass he could make out the shape of a lone figure hunched over the desk, a small quill bobbing dutifully in time with his scrawled words. Draco took a moment to be annoyed about the archaic system of filing that wouldn't admit the use of Quick-Quote-Quills, which would be far more practical and legible for the squinty-eyed secretaries that attempted to read the reports.

He knocked and smiled when the figure beyond jumped.

"C-Come in!"

He came.

Harry looked up from the parchment that was long enough to curl over the front of his desk and almost to the floor. His glasses had crept halfway down his nose and for a moment he looked remarkably like Dumbledore.

"Malfoy? What the devil do _you _want? Do you have a permit to be here?"

Draco ignored his questions. It was rude and his mother would have been appalled, but he was an adult and she was dead so there wasn't much she could do. She certainly couldn't give him a smack.

"I was wondering if you wanted to get married some time. You know, when it's convenient. I know you've been busy because of the holiday crime rates and all, but I would really appreciate it if you could make this a priority. It's important."

You could have heard a pin drop. And then Harry croaked,

"Excuse me?"

"I said-"

"I heard you the first time!"

Draco frowned, "Then why-"

Harry groaned and rubbed his face. He looked away at a humorous poster tacked onto his wall (something about cats, from what Draco could see), and gave a sigh.

"Look, let's just be honest here. Who put you up to this and how much are they paying you?"

"You're not very bright, are you?" Draco strolled into the office like he belonged there and closed the door behind him. He saw Harry sit up straighter and his hand disappeared into the sleeve of his red robes, most likely getting a grip on his wand. Not that that was necessary. He could easily overpower Draco physically, who had lost most of his muscle tone sitting at his desk listening to people pour out their woes.

Draco seated himself on the edge of the desk beside Harry's chair and smiled at him. Now that he was seeing him at such close quarters for the first time in years, he had to admit that it was obvious why he'd developed feelings for him. Harry wasn't classically handsome, but neither was Draco. Still, there was something about that stubborn set to his jaw and the color of his eyes that was genuinely appealing.

"I fancy you, Potter. Harry. I really do. No one told me to come here, and this has been a long time in coming. Now that you know, you may as well agree to date me. I don't just feel things about somebody without doing something about it."

Harry tried to splutter some kind of retort, but it was obvious that Draco's late-night guerilla tactic had been effective. He blindsided the Boy Who Lived.

"I like your hair like that, by the way. It suits you."

Harry gave up trying to argue and just looked at him with a blend of disbelief, amusement, and wariness in his eyes. He must have seen something in Draco's expression that changed his mind as the minutes wore on, because finally he grinned and slapped Draco's leg.

"You know what? Fuck it. I'll go out with you. But don't bring up marriage for a bit, alright? I still think I'm a bit young for that."

"Alright."

Grinning at each other like fools, they waited a few seconds before Harry darted his head forward for a kiss.

They got married two days later, much to the horror of every sensible person.

~000~

End Perspicacity

I have writer's block STILL. I am pissed and all I can write is shit. Nothing important. Argh!

Sorry to keep whining about it.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!


End file.
